Tender Is The Night Analysis

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Recommended: Social differences between 1920 and 1950 in the US

The American ‘roaring twenties’ was a time of dramatic, social and political change; the total wealth of the nation doubled and the economic escalation swooped many Americans into an opulent and unfamiliar consumer orientated society. For the first time, many more Americans were being swept up into a world of urban industrialisation – a change from poorer, rural farm life. Culturally the jazz age introduced a new lifestyle for many including jazz music, dancing and lavish spending for the rich and privileged. The youth of the 20s particularly relished the jazz age and used it as a chance to rebel against previous generations and the traditional culture and ideals they projected. This youth rebellion brought forward the well-known flapper girl. …show more content…

Gatsby’s single- minded pursuit of Daisy leads him from poverty to wealth and when he finally finds Daisy, she is already taken by another. His desperation to have her leads to his sad, lonely death. Similarly in “Tender is the Night” the main male character, who the story is based around, suffers the ill fate of isolation and we see how an established man can deteriorate and self-destruct. Dick Diver, a happily married psychiatrist is visiting the French Riviera with his wife Nicole Diver when the couple meet a young, famous actress; Rosemary Hoyt. At 18 she is inexperienced in the ways of love and Dick Diver soon becomes romantically involved with her and the pair begin an affair. Nicole also indulges in an affair and Dick and Nicole break off their marriage so that she can marry the one she is having an affair with. Dick is left alone at the end of the novel, having lost his business, his wife and Rosemary. In both novels it can be argued that due to infatuation with women – the male race often destroy their entire lives, the female gender seems to be the kryptonite to man. Or perhaps it is the nature of women that allows them to persevere and leave relatively unscathed from unfortunate situations? This study proposes to compare and analyse the way in which women are portrayed by Fitzgerald in his fiction “The Great Gatsby” and “Tender is the

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